The series is steeped in Biblical imagery, but its central struggle to break free from death and rebirth feels fundamentally Buddhist.
For the first time, it seems as if this character might have a shot at being liberated from her cycle of suffering, in which she seems destined to pilot an Evangelion forever. Both versions of the character are child soldiers bred for war, and they’re both fittingly named after World War II naval vessels (Japan’s aircraft carrier Soryu and destroyer Shikinami, and America’s USS Langley), though the film version, Shikinami, doesn’t appear to be weighed down by the same baggage as Soryu, who was trapped by the trauma of discovering her mother’s body after she committed suicide. For instance, for the films, Anno changes the surname of Shinji’s NERV teammate Soryu Asuka Langley (Miyamura Yūko) to Shikinami Asuka Langley.
They feel like Pandora’s Box waiting to be opened once more as the Rebuild series unfolds, and the story makes significant departures from the TV show, departures which culminate in a long-awaited confrontation between father and son. In the meantime, these ideas linger through subtle hints and glances. For instance, the films don’t explain the extent of Gendo’s perversions in the show - like the fact that he cloned his late wife Yui to create Shinji’s teenage teammate Ayanami Rei (Hayashibara Megumi), or that Yui’s biological form exists, in some fashion, within the enormous biomechanical Evangelion piloted by Shinji - until well into the third film.
The first two films largely retell the show from scratch, but they’re also enhanced for fans who’ve followed the franchise from the start, and know the entire story in its many iterations.
The first movie opens exactly like the show, with Shinji being recruited by Captain Katsuragi Misato (Mitsuishi Kotono), who works for Shinji’s estranged father, Ikari Gendo (Tachiki Fumihiko), at the Japanese paramilitary organization NERV, the last line of defense between the monstrous, inter-dimensional “Angels” and a third global cataclysm. 2009’s Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance soon followed, re-released with minor adjustments as Evangelion 2.22. Rebuilding EvangelionĪnno kicked off his Rebuild film project in 2007 - a decade after The End of Evangelion - with Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (and the slightly expanded version, Evangelion 1.11). It involves going back to the beginning, where it all began for Shinji: his painful relationship with his father, and the way it took hold of him in version after version of the Evangelion story. Anno has now told Shinji’s story for over 25 years, cycling back to the beginning of his saga each time it seemingly ends, and finding new ways to express what episodes 25 and 26 represented at their core: a desire to live, and to accept all the beauty and ugliness that individuality entails.īut how can Shinji, Anno, or the audience let this emotional breakthrough stick, if they can’t break free from the cycle of Evangelion itself? An answer finally materializes in Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, the challenging final chapter in the franchise, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime. They were also highly divisive among fans in 1996, so series creator Hideaki Anno eventually remixed them several times, starting with the theatrical remake, The End of Evangelion.
Shinji lives in his father’s shadow, and it doesn’t seem coincidental that these numbers align with the final entries in Neon Genesis Evangelion, the 26-episode mecha anime series the first two Rebuild films condense and retell.Įpisodes 25 and 26 are unexpectedly abstract, owing to a combination of budget and scheduling issues, and the story being finalized late in the game. In the four-film Rebuild of Evangelion series, lonely, depressed teenage protagonist Ikari Shinji (Ogata Megumi) listens to his father’s old Walkman on repeat, shuffling back and forth between tracks 25 and 26 without progressing.